an impossible love story

The moon looked around her. The night was silent, numb. Nobody else but her in the sky, except all the millions of stars. She loved her stars, she knew her stars were her constant companions, but yet, they were always there at her side. You could almost say that she took her stars for granted. They never left her side- when she woke up to the night, they always blinked awake, one after the other, and she had never experienced that they did not, so yes, you could say that she did take the stars for granted. Of course she did have her favourite stars, but this she never told any of them, because she knew the other ones would be jealous should they find out. She was their queen, their light and love, their safety and serenity. They all loved her and adored her; turned their illuminated faces towards hers, and looked at her endlessly for support, safety and peace. She knew what her purpose in life was- she needed to be there, to guide all the millions of stars. She was like their mother, they needed her, without her they did not know their direction or placement in the sky. The moon knew her purpose in life and was happy to be living such a meaningful existence; completely unaware of what was happening down on that planet earth, completely oblivious of all the effects she had one the people and the oceans. She was content, happy, fulfilled.

The moon looked around her. Another night, another silent, numb night, surrounded by twinkling little pieces of diamonds, as if flanked by millions of beauty spots. The moon was shining, radiant, beautiful, and she knew it. She even sometimes adored herself in one of the brighter shining stars- she could sense her reflection, and she admired herself. She knew she was beautiful, she was the queen of the night, and she was proud of herself.
This particular night a very bright star came and sat next to her. The night was silent and numb; no clouds, no wind. She could see her reflection very clearly, as if gazing into a brightly polished mirror.

The moon watched her round, full, plump face in her mirror. She watched it closely, she studied each and every round shape, every small corner of beauty, all the radiance that was emanating from her. She looked closer at her beautiful face, and on this particularly silent night, she discovered something new.
Her face was filled with an emotion- something she had never known before. This emotion was only slightly visible- as a veil- it was like she was covered in a very thin veil of desire. This thin veil of desire was impossible to see if she looked at each and every detail of her plump face- it was only when she took a tiny leap back and looked at her full figure, that she could make it out. It was as if her whole being was draped in this strong desire.
She was surprised, she looked away, and she looked again. What was this? Where did this come from? She had no one to ask, she had no one to turn to. She was different from all of the stars, even though they were friends, they were on very different levels of existence. She had never in her life before felt like she had a question that she had no answer to.
All night she was silent, thinking deeply about this veil of desire that had started to cover her being. Had it always been there and she had not seen it? Had it just, tonight, draped itself onto her round, full form? And, more importantly- what did it mean? What exactly was she longing for? She had always been so happy with her existence, so fulfilled by her purpose. As day was breaking she slowly faded into a restless sleep.

The sun woke with a start. Yes, he exclaimed, another day! Another day for me to shine in all my beautiful, glorious radiance! He decided to give the world a great show this morning, and summoned all the most beautiful clouds along the most beautiful beaches on the planet. He, the sun, loved his planet so incredibly much, and he felt excruciatingly happy to be able to illuminate all its treasures each and every day. He did his work with pride and joy- each and every day he was enjoying the light touching and burning all the beauty of the planet, and he got so much pleasure and satisfaction from sending out his hot, golden rays of light.
The clouds were his little soldiers, his army of helpers, who hurriedly did anything he demanded them to do. They were his back-up and strength, whenever he needed a little extra help.

Like this morning, when he decided to splash out on a radiant sunrise show- he wanted to give humanity a real big dose of beauty and spectacular vistas.
So he called his army of funnily-shaped clouds, the batallion of thick and round and puffy clouds, and commanded them to stand at each and every one of the planet's paradise beaches. They did as they were told immediately, and the show could begin. Whoever was present at one of the world's paradise beaches were given such a glorious morning that they all spent the rest of the day smiling and feeling intoxicated with the beauty of this world, and the sun oberved this in all the humans that he had touched, and felt so, so proud that his chest swelled even more, and unfortunately he shone a bit too brightly on certain areas of the planet, without noticing it. But he did not mean any harm- he was just so proud of all the beauty that he could provide, and slightly intoxicated himself with the amazing powers that he posessed.
This seemed to happen a lot lately, and the batallions and armies of clouds were starting to get worried. How could they tell the sun that this was actually damaging certain areas of the planet- the fact that he swelled too much, his pride got so huge, that he was actually harming certain lands and its people? He was burning so strongly, this sun, and the armies of clouds were helplessly standing by, obeying him when summoned to create beautiful sunrises and sunsets, but then he was forgetting to do his helpful work and thereby creating damage with all his burning powers.

The clouds called a crisis meeting one day- they decided to gather over Great Britain where many of them resided anyway, so that the sun would not notice that they were gone.
They needed not to worry about the sun noticing anything because he was, on this particular day, so swollen with burning pride, that he saw nothing else except for himself.
As the clouds were weeping for the starving people, and as the people of London were being soaked with rain, the sun just kept on shining and basking in his own golden light, burning into the dry sands of the African deserts, creating forest fires in the south of Europe, and killing all the rice growing on the fields of Asia.

Neither the moon nor the sun knew about one other. They were both living in separate realities- day and night, light and darkness. They had never met, they had not even seen each other. As one went to sleep, the other one woke up, and then again, as one woke up, the other went to sleep. They were both whole in their own round form, both full in their own existence- or at least, so they thought. They both believed they were happy and fulfilled as it was; that they needed nothing more in life.
But on this particular day, the moon had discovered something new in herself, which had given her much worry. She had seen a veil of desire covering her face, and she did not know what to do with this.
The sun had not had a similar experience- however, the batallions of clouds were having a crisis meeting on this very same day, as they knew the sun was destroying the planet, and killing its people. They knew something had to be done, something had to change. The sun had to be woken up, because he could not continue like he had done- he would extinguish all the life on the planet.

The cloud-meeting was a meeting filled with fear. No one dared to even think about speaking up against the sun, no one dared to question his rays of fire. They were simply too scared- even though the sun had never done any harm to them, they still had the deepest respect for him, as they knew all about his immense stregth.

The meeting went on until late in the evening, so late that the moon had woken up, slowly and lazily as always, and was just beginning to look around at all her beautiful little twinkling diamonds surrounding her like a jewellery display. She remembered the veil of desire that she had discovered last night, and had a slightly uncomfortable feeling inside her about it, but she decided to not think too much about it. The sky was looking cloudy as she gazed down her round form, but as always, she did not really mind. She was content in her starry sky, she did not look any further than to her closest lit-up surrounding. It was not her job to know what more there was below her.
But this particular night there was something different going on down there. She was sensing, through her intuition, a very strong turmoil below her. There was a feeling of upheaval and disaster, which she had never felt before, ever, in her existence.
The moon started to really get worried now. The combination of last night's veil of desire, and now this turmoil below her, were two completely new aspects of existence for her, and she had a huge feeling in her rounded belly that this meant big changes. She felt something happening inside her that she could not explain, but she felt it, she knew something was coming. She was unable to function from this moment- she felt restless and uneasy, she felt like she was swollen and puffy, filled with strange feelings, and she could not be a good guide to her beloved stars anymore. She was in upheaval, completely uprooted, and different. She knew something huge was coming.

The clouds had reached a conclusion right there under the cooling light of the moon. They had an idea that was so bright, and made so much sense, which many of them had had at the very same moment, and they were all so surprised about the fact that they had never thought about it before. It was the perfect solution, according to them, and they were going to put the plan into action in just a few hours, as they knew they had no time to waste.

So early, early in the morning, the clouds started putting their plan into action. They gathered in their chosen place- one of the most radiantly beautiful places on the planet, a tiny island in a very blue sea- and by drawing strength from each other and from a higher sense of needing to save the planet, they were not afraid to disobey the sun's probable wishes for that morning. They all gathered at the spot that they had chosen, right at the meeting-point of the mountains, the sky and the sea, and got lined up for the big event.

It was just before dawn broke. The sky was not dark, not yet bright. The sun was thundering to the clouds to come to all the beaches of the Caribbean, as he knew a lot of people were going to gather for the sunrise, wacthing it from their exclusive sunchairs at the beach resorts. But the clouds, even though they were shaking from fear, huddled together, drew strength from each other, and stayed right were they were, on that tiny beautiful island in that very blue sea. They created a tunnel together, a round, thick tunnel, where the two ends of the tunnels were open, perfeclty round, and they waited for the moment.

The sun, as he roared to his clouds to come and gather for the impressive sunrise show, got more and more impatient. This had never happened to him before- they always came running, bouncing, jumping towards him, as soon as he called. What on earth could be happening?
The sun started to get angry, but his curiosity stopped the anger, and he was overtaken by the need to find out what was keeping the clouds from coming, what was making them behave so differently.
And the clouds knew their master very well. As he came forging towards this beautiful island, they stood pepared in their tunnel shape. Some of them were even giggling with nervous anticipation, protected by one another, feeling safe in their multitude and meaningful mastery.
Exactly as they had expected, the sun arrived at the end of one of the tunnel openings, and as he came ahead with full speed, he suddenly stopped, right at the perfectly round hole, shaped just for him to land in.
The sun was so baffled at this sight of the clouds and this round hole that he suddenly found himself caught in, that he had no time to get fired up or ask any questions; he just landed in this perfectly shaped circle and stopped dead.
At this moment the tunnel of clouds slightly adjusted themselves at the other end of the tunnel, and positioned that opposite circle perfectly around the cool, calm, exquisite shape of the moon.

The tunnel was now closed at both ends, one end filled up by the moon, and the other end by the sun.
The clouds were not breathing, they were just waiting. The world fell silent. Time stood still. It was neither day, nor night. Everything was perfect.

As the sun gazed inside this strange tunnel, filled with curiosity, he saw the other end of the tunnel. He laid his burning eyes upon the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life. He opened his eyes as wide as he could, and he took in this form at the other end of the tunnel with all his being.
As the moon felt hot rays hitting her round, full shape, she felt herself warming up to a feeling she never knew existed. It was as if she was hit by waves of pleasure that she had never imagined. She felt as if she was woken up, as if she had been sleeping all her life until this very moment, and as if she was melting; her form dissolving from this magnificent heat, and it made her feel like she was experiencing the ultimate reason for existing.
As this meeting of the sun and the moon was taking place, it was as if everything fell into place. The world was silent. It was neither day nor night. Eveything was perfect.

Then the day broke, and the moon faded away.

From this moment, the sun could not think of anything else but this radiant form that he had laid eyes upon. All day he was yearning for her. He asked the clouds a million questions about her; who is she, where does she live, why did you hide her from me for so long?
But the clouds could not explain what had happened. All they knew was that the sun needed to meet her, and they had hoped that her cooling rays would have an effect upon him that would stop his burning of the planet.

For the moon, the whole day was spent sleepless. She knew this was what her forefeeling had been about. She had known inside her that something huge would happen to her, and this was it. That feeling of melting in such a radiant heat, such golden strength and pleasure, was what her desire had been about. This was what she had been longing for, in fact, she had been longing for the sun to warm her up, to wake her up from her silent, dark, isolated existence in the night sky.

But the sun and the moon could not meet again. The clouds had gone back to serving their master, the sun, and even though the sun kept asking them every morning to bring him her, they were not able to conduct this tunnel shape again, even though they tried many times, because they wanted to please their master.
The moon was longing so deeply for the sun to come and melt her form again, and each morning, before sleep, she was waiting impatiently, looking around her, looking down at the clouds, waiting and weeping.

The sun and the moon kept doing their work, but from that particular moment of their meeting, they could no longer do it with any joy. The sun was no longer able to create spectacular sunrises, as he was only complaining to the clouds that they should create the tunnel to the moon, and the moon was now only writing poetry and singing sad love-songs for her stars, whom she now appreciated as her fellow companions that kept her from feeling too lonely and isolated.

From this day all sunrises were mediocre, and the sun was not shining too brightly in any places. The sun no longer felt pride for his radiance, as all he could think about was the sweet face of the moon. He longed for her each and every day, and was living his days in a dull and meaningless way, devoid of all passion.
And from this day the moon was no longer content in her silent night sky. She looked everywhere around her, searching for the sun. She was happy that she had her stars to keep her company, and she gave each and every one equally much love and appreciation.

And they both kept on doing their work forever, until the end of the times, with the renewed hope each day and night that they would meet each other once again.
Each morning the sun keeps rising in search of his beloved, and each night the moon rises in desire for her love to melt her again.